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It is very important for everyone to provide all required nutrients to our body. For strong and healthy body, proper nutrition plus exercise are key factors.
In Breast Cancer, proper nutrition and sufficient exercise, both are very essential, because the body is already working hard to fight the disease. Some of the treatments used in breast cancer are also destructing to our body. So, during and after treatment, the diet and exercise plan must be carefully managed.
Obesity and weight gain are commonly seen among the patients with breast cancer.
Diet must particularly be of low fat, high in minerals, fibers and vitamins. Healthy weight can reduce the risk of cancer or cancer coming back.
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Pain and Fatigue Management:10 | 11 |
Pain and Fatigue may cause a havoc in a person with breast cancer. It is very obvious for a person to become frustrated and irritated due to day by day increasing pain and fatigue. The disease as well as the treatment causes pain.
But, there are medicines which can prevent pain and fatigue. There are some complementary therapies to avoid pain and fatigue.
A wide range of medications may be prescribed for the pain.
These include:
- Aspirin
- Acetaminophen
- NSAIDs or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as Ibuprofen , Ketoprofen,etc.
For fatigue there are no such specific medications. But according to the cause of the fatigue, some options can be suggested, like, iron supplement for anemia, infections can be treated with antibiotics such as amoxicillin, ampicillin, cefixime, etc.and depression can be treated with antidepressants and so on.
Complementary therapies help a lot for fatigue management.
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Menopausal Symptoms Management:12 |
Thousands of women with breast cancer experience a premature menopause as a result of adjunct chemotherapy and endocrine treatment. Treatment of these symptoms is difficult. Hormone replacement therapy is contraindicated, considering that the tumor is hormone sensitive.
Normally herbal remedies and some dietary supplements can be used to manage these symptoms. But, the ingredients must be checked as some contain estrogenic compounds.
Vasomotor symptoms can be managed with clonidine and the selective serotonin releasing inhibitors such as paroxitine and venlafaxine.
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Psychological Care13 |
Women with breast cancer faces a lot of psychological problems. Surgery for breast cancer and damage to physical appearance after chemotherapy toxicity, often results in physical and psychological dysfunction.
The psychological problems which women faces are as follows:
Fear of cancer:
Fear of death can make a person extremely depressed.
Psychological resistance:
Patients receiving chemotherapy for a period of time may lead to a serious response from the patient ,like for example, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, loss of hair, blood vessel damage, and pain.
The adverse reactions may lead to the recurrence of patients with depression, and loss of confidence in the struggle with the disease. For such patients, health care providers should take timely and effective psychological care measures, to bring back the lost confidence in them.
Inferiority complex:
Women may face a problem of inferiority complex because of the physical changes
Some approaches to take the psychological care of breast cancer women are,
- Social and emotional support,
- Psycho educational approaches,
- Cognitive behavioral approaches,
- Psychotherapy and
- Complementary therapies.
Such psychosocial services may be provided by clinicians involved in medical care, such as physicians and nurses, and professionals trained in social work, psychology and psychiatry.
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